COMMITTEE BOARD
Meet our team that makes The Apraxia Foundation Possible!!
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Jordan Christian LeVan
President & Founder
Jordan Christian LeVan is an apraxia, disability, and mental health advocate. He graduated in 2020 with his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, focusing on Mental Health, with his minor in General Biology, from Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. Jordan began his advocation by being the person he needed when he was younger, so he first started his advocation by beginning his blog called Fighting for my Voice: My Life with Verbal Apraxia, where he gives people an inside view of what it’s like to live with Verbal Apraxia. He is the author of the book series called Jordan’s World, a non-fiction book series about his life as a child growing up with Verbal Apraxia. In his free time, Jordan enjoys writing, spending time with friends, listening to music, and doing advocation work in numerous aspects. He is also a motivational speaker, mentor, and research collaborator. Jordan’s goal is to educate the world and spread acceptance of all differences. From previous life experiences, he wants to create a world where we all come together as one and celebrate each person's uniqueness. He is excited to see where the organization will go and flourish to help all individuals with Apraxia and other related communication differences.
Laura Smith
Professional Advisory
Laura Baskall Smith MA, CCC-SLP is a speech/language pathologist in Denver, Colorado specializing in the assessment and intervention of children with childhood apraxia of speech at her private practice A Mile High Speech Therapy. Prior to specializing in CAS, she worked for 14 years as a school based speech language pathologist. She is the mother to a child with apraxia and author of the book Overcoming Apraxia. Laura has written on CAS in numerous publications and is often asked to give lectures and workshops nationally and internationally. A self described fierce advocate, Laura spreads apraxia awareness and information on her social media handles under the name SLP Mommy of Apraxia.
Kailee Minnick
Social Media Manager
Kailee is a mama of two young boys, Eli, and Jaxon. When her oldest son Eli was 18 months old, she knew something wasn’t quite right with his speech. After four years of fighting for Eli’s voice, Eli was finally diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of speech. Because of the battle it took to get Eli’s diagnosis, it is Kailee’s passion to make every parent feel validated and heard. She refuses to let anyone feel as alone as she did during those four years. It has now been four years since Eli’s diagnosis and four years since we found Jordan online on a Facebook live advocating for Apraxia. Four years of relief knowing we aren’t alone in this. We have a whole beautiful and wonderful community behind us. When Kailee isn’t advocating, she loves spending her time with friends and family, reading, hiking, and traveling to new cities.